Mi amigo imaginario

I adapted this activity from an activity that a teacher posted on the OFLA list serv, and I plan to do this activity in Spanish 1 in the fall. It can work for any level--the only thing that will change is the vocabulary and grammar that you would expect from the students.
Here are the steps of the project:
1. I will hand out the project's expectations and a rubric communicating to the students that I will be looking for appropriate vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. Part of the project will be to record their description on whatever recording application I choose (Audacity, Audio Pal, Vocaroo, etc.) and post it to a community place (all of this I have yet to figure out).
2. I will present a model of a description of my imaginary friend. I will say her name, her physical characteristics, personality characteristics and what she likes.
3. After all the students have posted their recordings, each student should choose someone else's recording and draw their description (I will have my students draw theirs on a DyKnow slide so I can easily grade and return their drawings).
4. For an additional step, I might show a couple of the students' drawings and ask students to describe the imaginary friend.

Food presentations

This quarter I tried something new for an extra graded assignment. I gave students the opportunity to make one authentic food from Spain or Latin America. Each student presents the food at the beginning of class. I was a little worried, but so far the recipes have been impressive. The only requirements for the assignment are that they must talk about how they made the food and the country from where the food originates. The food should also be homemade, and they have to clear the food with me first. It only takes about 5 minutes at the beginning of class, and I think the students enjoy something different for fourth quarter. I also think it gives students an opportunity to try foods that they normally wouldn't touch in a real-life setting.

Here are some of the recipes students have prepared:
Magdalenas from Spain
Rice pudding from Spain and Latin America
Mexican Wedding Cookies
Spanish Wedding Cookies
Patatas Bravas
Nutilla
Empanadas
Home-made chips and salsa (which I would normally not allow but it was a family recipe)

In the future, I would require that students not repeat a recipe and that they write a short report about the food.